


Just This One Thing

by ElCapitan18



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-12
Updated: 2015-03-12
Packaged: 2018-03-17 12:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3529424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElCapitan18/pseuds/ElCapitan18
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delani Lavellan has agreed to help the Inquisition, if somewhat begrudgingly. She can help them, but that doesn't mean that she has to like them. Acclimating to this new arrangement is a little more difficult than anyone anticipated, and it's left to Cullen to figure out how to deal it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just This One Thing

There was a commotion in the distance, things being thrown and an argument loud enough to be heard over the clang of clashing swords and colliding shields. Though curious, Cullen maintained his post supervising the recruits as they trained. The ruckus was coming from the direction of the hunting lodge, nestled between the trees, well away from Haven's fortified walls. He had seen the Dalish elf woman storm that way not too long ago, and that was when the clattering had started. Before Cullen could seek out the cause of the noise Cassandra had gone to investigate. 

The prisoner turned herald was only on her second day of freedom and already she was looking to find herself incarcerated once more. They had just left the war room, he, Leliana, Josephine, and Cassandra had attempted to impart with Delani the direness of their current situation and how badly they needed her assistance. Begrudgingly she had agreed to become an agent of the Inquisition, and distastefully she had left the four of them in the war room staring after her as she slammed the door behind her and fled from their company. 

To say that things were strained between all of them was to put it mildly. It was clear to see that the elf woman didn't trust them in the slightest, and they did not know how to approach her. In the two days of their acquaintanceship Cullen had learned that Delani's glare could cut cleanly through glass and she spoke with a venom that no serpent or arachnid could rival. Sometimes she wouldn't even speak to them in the common tongue, instead speaking Elvish until they were forced to retrieve Solas; which was when she would clam up and refuse to speak again. Solas had assured them that, with space and time, Delani would surely come around. But, by the sounds coming from the hunting lodge, Cullen seriously doubted it. 

With a shake of his head, Cullen sighed through his nose and returned his focus to the recruits. If he had ever doubted the Makers sense of humor, Delani was evidence that He was a comedic genius. Sending a Dalish elf to save them from the Breach, the very thought was ludicrous. She wanted no part of the Inquisition, he hadn't the slightest idea as to why she'd agreed to join in the first place. He doubted that she'd ever tell him either. 

"Mind your footing, recruit," he shouted at the man as he and another soldier clashed shields. When the recruit stepped back, searching Cullen for further direction, Cullen explained. "Square your feet or next time she'll knock you right off of them. Your knees were made to bend. Bend them!"

"Aye, Commander," the soldier replied before bending his knees and trying again. 

When their performance improved on their next attempt, Cullen praised them with a leveled, "Better," before saying, "Again."

Walking down the line of training soldiers, Cullen's gaze was pulled from his men at the sight of Cassandra reappearing from the trees. Her face was red, expression tight with annoyance, and she was marching straight toward him. The Seeker's temper was no secret, but it took quite a lot to rile her up to the point of blood rushing to her face. As she stomped away at the distance between them, Cullen wondered what the Dalish elf had done to garner such a reaction. 

Before he could ask what had happened Cassandra was explaining the situation to him. "The Herald has decided that she wants to live in the hunting lodge."

"What?" Cullen asked, surprised and confused. The hunting lodge was already the domicile of Haven's hunters. What Cassandra was implying was that the elf woman had stormed into the lodge and claimed it as her own with no regard for whoever was already living inside. Cullen did not know Delani well enough to say whether or not it was out of character, but it was surprising all the same. 

Cassandra nodded that he had heard her correctly. Rubbing the frustrated furrow from her brow, she exhaled heavily and shook her head. "She says that the lodge is hers and she is prepared to fight for it. All of my attempts to make her see reason were useless. She will not listen." 

When Cullen made an impartial yet understanding sound, Cassandra's eyes narrowed and she said "You talk to her."

Shocked, his jaw fell before he snapped it shut again. Giving the Seeker a bewildered look he argued, "Me?" Before shaking his head. "I doubt I'll have any better luck than you did. Perhaps Solas—“

"No," she cut him off before he could voice the thought to its end. When Cullen ground his teeth with distaste she held his glare unflinchingly. "We cannot keep turning to Solas simply because they are both elves. Delani Lavellan is an agent of the Inquisition now, one of our forces. You command our forces, do you not?"

Cullen turned his nose at her argument. It was underhanded and she knew it. Holding Cassandra's hard gaze, his voice was low when he stated, "So dealing with temperamental wild women is now my responsibility?"

"If that is what the inquisition requires of you."

His lips thinned. "Is it?" He bit out, wanting so badly to fight Cassandra on this. All it took was one look into the Seekers eyes for him to see that he would not win this one. 

Holding his gaze with an unwavering expression she ordered him to, "Deal with it," and strode off to supervise the rest of the training exercises. 

Cullen's gaze fell to his boots and he let out a long,  disgruntled breath. Commanding the Inquisition’s forces was a taxing enough job without having a Dalish wild woman thrown into the mix. But Delani was an agent of the inquisition now, and that made her one of their forces, and that meant that he had to 'deal with it' and try to make her see reason. Andraste preserve him, he had no patience for this today. 

Leaving the training grounds, Cullen made his way to the tree line in pursuit of the hunting lodge. There were still various noises coming from the structures direction, the clatter of things being thrown about with reckless abandon. When he stepped off of the worn path and into the clearing where the lodge was located, Cullen groaned at the sight of Delani pointing her dagger at one of Haven’s hunters’ throats. 

"Lady Lavellan," his booming voice filled the clearing and she didn't so much as flinch. "Put down your weapon."

Her gaze was on the hunter, whose trembling hands were held up in surrender, when she pulled her lip back into a snarl. Growling she wondered, "Is that an order, _Commander?_ ”

Cullen narrowed his eyes at her. "Yes," he returned, his tone just as biting, heavy with the full weight of his title and authority. "And as an agent of the Inquisition you are to—“

She moved her stance and suddenly her dagger was aimed toward Cullen in challenge. The hunter stumbled backwards, hurrying to put distance between him and the Dalish woman. Haunting sea green eyes were narrowed to pin pricks. "I may be an agent of the Inquisition but that does not make me one of your whelp soldiers. Do not think to give me orders, C _ommander_." 

He hated the way that she kept saying his title as though it were an insult, the butt of a joke; it was almost as though she felt him underserving of it. Cullen’s hackles rose. Gritting his teeth, he grasped at the last strands of his patience and held on for as long as he could. He held Delani’s glare with his own, refusing to back down from the confrontation or wilt under her deadly gaze. 

Gesturing toward the hunters still watching their face-off, Cullen observed, “Look at what you are doing, Herald—“

“I am not your herald!” she shouted back at him, fury emanating from her like heat from a wildfire. “Two days ago I was your prisoner. Two days ago I was to be executed for a crime that I did not commit!” She glanced at the hunters and her eyes hardened. When she returned her focus to Cullen her lip pulled back and she sneered at him. “You _shemlan_ may have forgotten, but I my memory is not so fleeting.”

Sighing through his nose, Cullen calmly attempted to remind her that she no longer stood accused of those crimes. “Two days ago we did not have all of the information.”

“And you still don’t,” she returned. Holding the hilt of her dagger between her thumb and index finger, she loosened her grip enough to uncurl her fingers and show him her palm. The mark slashed across her skin was free to see on her gloveless hand. It glowed, the otherworldly green light pulsing steadily with undertones of incomprehensible power. Cullen looked up from from her hand to her eyes. 

He swallowed. Cullen had never seen eyes like hers before. He had never known a green so pure could even exist. Her pupils were surrounded by rings of yellow that melted into deeper tones of green, flecks of gold catching the daylight and glittering like gems still undiscovered by man or dwarf. In those breath-stealing orbs of green and yellow, Cullen could see Delani’s fear. 

Without breaking eye contact she growled, “The only reason you haven’t killed me yet is because of this, and what I can do for you.” She closed her hand around the hilt of her dagger once more. Anger was thick in her voice, irritation clear in her stance. “I am a tool to you, nothing more. Do not try to argue that truth by forcing your god and his will upon me. I do not worship your Andraste, and I do not serve her.” 

They stood in silence for a moment, sizing each other up as they anticipated what the other’s next move would be. Cullen watched Delani closely, seeing the fear in her eyes reflected throughout the rest of her body. She was acting like a cornered wildcat. The Inquisition had closed her in, and this was her retaliation. Fear disguised as bravery, uncertainty masked by anger. 

The Dalish elf had built a wall up around herself, protecting her from outsiders and these strangers that now surrounded her. But not even that last line of defense could hide the fear she felt. Delani was afraid, and Cullen took a moment to try and understand why. He looked around at their surroundings, noting the hunters, the breeze whispering through the trees, the snow falling from the skies and fluttering to the ground. None of this was familiar to Delani.

Two days ago she had been a prisoner. Two weeks ago she had been with her clan, her interactions with humans had probably been minimal and far in-between. Now she found herself surrounded by humans that had once been out for blood. Could Cullen blame her for not trusting them? No, he knew that he couldn’t. But that did not mean that he could allow her behavior to continue. He didn’t know how things were done in her clan, but here, with humans, if she wanted something she had to ask for it; politely.

“You are in no danger from us any longer, Lady Lavellan,” he said, a soothing hum in his voice; which immediately made her eyes narrow in reaction. 

Scowling at his tone, she argued, “Am I to take you at your word?”

“Yes,” was his reply. “No harm will befall you inside of Haven’s walls. I swear it.”

Lip curling back, she bared her teeth at him and said, “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you, Commander.” For once she didn’t tilt the word as though it were a curse or an insult; though Cullen could not tell whether or not that was progress. “I see the way you all look at me. I would prefer not to have my throat slit in the dead of night.”

“So this is your solution?” Cullen asked, gesturing to the hunting lodge behind her. “To barge into someone else’s home, claim it as yours, and evict them with force?”

Delani’s eyebrows pinched with distaste, her glare was sharp enough to flay the flesh right off his bones. “Is that not how you humans do it?” she seethed in return, a millennia of malice burning in her eyes.

Setting his jaw, Cullen curtly replied, “No.” He had done nothing to her. He had played no part in the suffering of her people, nor the past injustices done to them. Though he understood her anger, her resentment, and even her fear, they had no place in the Inquisition. She would have to learn to work with humans, and quickly. Trust would come with time; cooperation, however, should have happened before they had even released her shackles. 

“If you wanted the hunting lodge you needed only to ask,” Cullen explained, feeling ridiculous having to explain manners to a grown woman.

Delani quirked an eyebrow. Moving her dagger back to the hunter again, she irritably conceded to Cullen’s terms. “I want your hunting lodge. Will you give it to me?”

The man tripped over himself as he backed away, fearfully sputtering, “Y-yes, Your Worship. It’s yours!” Collecting himself in a panic, the hunter turned tail and finally left Cullen and Delani alone in the clearing.

Satisfied with the hunter’s retreat, Delani returned her daggers to the sheaths on her back. With her hands on her hips, she looked at Cullen and huffed. Her sea green eyes were now sparkling with something he dared to call mischief, but the irritation still twisting her expression made him uncertain. 

“What do you know,” she said, her voice deadpan. “You were right.”

Lips twisting with dissatisfaction, Cullen watched as the elf woman turned on her heel and started for the hunting lodge. He followed after her, curious about this wild woman who had needed to be reminded of the effectiveness of politeness. Cullen was not afraid to admit that she was intriguing. Delani was the first Dalish elf he had ever really met. The stories that he had heard of them spoke of savagery and heresy and, so far, she wasn’t disproving any of it as false. 

“Why do you want this hunting lodge at any rate?” he wondered, trailing her up to the door for the cabin, but not setting foot inside. Giving the small living quarters a once over, he muttered, “It is hardly defensible.”

She had started to move things around inside, but stopped at the sound of his words. Turning to face him full on, she stared at Cullen with furrowed brows and demanded, “Why do you say that?”

Feeling put on the spot, Cullen started to rub the back of his neck as he mentally put together a list of all the reasons why the cabin was a poor living space during a time of war. “Well,” he started, “It’s beyond the protection of Haven’s walls, for starters.”

Delani immediately made an annoyed and unsurprised noise before rolling her eyes. Returning to the task of rearranging the lodge’s interior, she grunted as she struggled to lift the heavy chest at the foot of the bed. When Cullen entered the cabin and offered her his assistance, she nodded at him in gratitude, before arguing his observation. Voice strained by the weight of the chest, Delani grit out a disgruntled, “You _shemlans_ and your walls.”

They set the chest down near the wall and Delani slapped her hands together before placing them on her hips and glancing over at Cullen. She wondered, “How are you supposed to run if you are surrounded by high walls?”

Eyebrow cocked with disapproval, Cullen returned, “Are you in the habit of running from conflict?”

“I’m in the habit of surviving,” she answered without a shred of shame. Delani crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned to face Cullen head on. Sea green eyes sharp with unreserved judgment, she scanned him over from head to toe, and sighed at what she found. Whether the sigh had been with disappointment or resignation, he couldn't tell. 

Meeting and holding Cullen’s gaze, Delani continued her thought. “I’m in the habit of choosing my battles wisely.”

“And our walls, what, make us incapable of choosing our battles?” he challenged, not following her logic.

She shrugged. “Your walls are your shackles, your cage. Yes they keep the danger out, but they keep you inside as well. If a great enough force comes down on Haven a few logs tied together isn’t going to keep them out, but it is going to keep you in like sheep for the slaughter.”

Cullen supposed that she had a point. But the people dwelling inside of the fortifications were many. Without those fortifications they would be vulnerable. He stared down at Delani for a moment, his eyes tracing the intricate design of the tattoos on her face. Crimson branches fanned over her brow and cheekbones, nearly indiscernible from the bronzy color of her skin tone. She had a small nose that tilted slightly upward. Her lips were full with a natural pout and redness. Delani’s jawline was square in the most feminine way, and was prone to jutting out with indignation. Thick auburn eyebrows were furrowed over large sea green eyes. Under different circumstances he would have easily admitted to finding her beautiful. The situation being what it was… well, she was still beautiful, Cullen just found her standoffish behavior too grating to contend with. 

Clearing his throat, Cullen dismissed his thoughts before they could derail any further. He placed his hands on the pommel of the sword on his hip and asked, “What, and this lodge is better?”

With an easy nod, she enlightened him. “The trees here are tall, and the wildlife is plentiful. If there is danger about I will know it.”

“How?” he asked, features tightening with doubt.

“Nature holds her breath when something is about to happen,” she said with another shrug. “All I have to do is listen.”

Cullen pursed his lips as he thought over her answer. Finding himself unable to really fault her logic, he probed her further. “And what happens if this ‘great force’ descends upon you?”

“I would run.” A smirk hinted at the edge of her mouth, toying with the corner of her lips but remaining hidden under her surface. Her amusement was much more difficult to disguise in the greens of her eyes. “I believe you would call it a tactical retreat.”

He frowned with her answer. His jaw set as he mulled her words over. Cullen did not like that she would run so easily. Delani was believed to be the Herald of Andraste, sent by the Maker. She could not just abandon the Inquisition simply because they were outmatched. There were innocent people in Haven. She would just leave them to die to save her own skin? The thought didn’t sit well with him. 

“And what happens to the rest of us when you run?” 

She held his gaze for a moment, searching his eyes for something he didn’t know. Lips thinning with an emotion that he couldn’t place, Delani sighed through her nose and narrowed her eyes at him. Lifting her chin, she investigated, “Tell me, Commander, if our roles were reversed would you stay to defend my clan against bandits? Even after we imprisoned you, accused you of mass murder, and had demanded your execution?”

“Yes,” he easily replied, and not only because it was the same answer he wanted from her. If their roles had been reversed, and Cullen had found himself captured by a Dalish clan, he would never abandon them because of that misunderstanding. He would stay. He would fight. And the reason was simple. “It’d be the right thing to do.”

Delani hummed in reply, taking a moment to consider his words. With a nod, she muttered, “Dying with honor is better than living as a coward.” She startled him when a smile started to inch across her lips, even if it was only a small turn of her lips in reality. The gesture, no matter how minuscule, brightened her entire face and Cullen wondered what it would take to see it again. 

The mischief was back in her eyes, more discernible now that some of it had made it onto her lips. “Do not fear, Commander,” she said. “Just because I know _when_ to run, does not mean that I will. Call it pride or stupidity, but I prefer the challenge of a good fight over the comfort of an easy retreat.”

He felt the corner of his mouth start to curl and fought to school his features back into neutrality. When he said, “I think some might call it bravery,” it had been without thought. The words were meant to remain inside his head, but his  tongue had mutinied against him. 

Her eyes widened with shock before her expression shifted with incredulity. Giving him a skeptical look, she muttered, “That is kind of you to say.”

Rubbing the heat from the back of his neck, he could feel his cheeks and the tips of his ears burn with his embarrassment. Cullen had over spoken. They were barely just met and he was already making judgments about her character, based on what? Words? It wasn’t even as though everything she had said prior to this moment had even been enough to support his claim. Delani was crass, she was sarcastic, she was confrontational, and she had it in her to be colder than the most bitter winter wind. 

The elf woman was also away from everything she knew. She was separated from her clan, and would likely be unable to return until the hole in the sky was healed. Delani was surrounded by strangers, forced to work with them. They asked for her trust even if they had yet to prove themselves worthy of it, and they asked for her cooperation with little to offer in return. Whatever else Delani was, the facts remained true; she was brave, there was no denying that. 

After a minute of silence passed between them, Delani gestured toward the door and said, “Now get out.”

Cullen blinked hard. “What?” Surprised by her sudden dismissal, all he could do for a moment was gape at her.

Annoyed that he remained firmly planted before her, Delani checked Cullen’s shoulder, turned him around, and shoved him toward the door with a strength that he had never imagined her capable of. “Out. These are my chambers now, and I want you out.”

When Cullen had allowed himself to be ushered out of the cabin and back out into the cold, Delani leaned forward with one hand on the doorframe and the other on the door handle. She held his gaze and allowed the smallest of smirks to curl the corner of her mouth, and his breath caught in his throat again. 

“Now if you’d please be so kind as to leave the premises, Commander, I’d be most grateful,” she said before slamming the door shut in his face.

Cullen stared at the door for a second, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. He and Delani had just had an actual dialogue. The elf woman could be somewhat bearable when she wasn’t snarling and threatening to stab everyone with her daggers. She’d even smirked at him a little, and Cullen wondered what it would take to make her do _that_ again. More skill than he had, that much was for certain. 

Turning on his heel with a sigh, Cullen started back toward the training ground feeling better than he had when seeking Delani out. They had made some progress. Though she was still brash and abrasive, she had shown a side of herself that was deeper than that as well. 

Delani had said that would not run if things got difficult. Cullen knew that things were bound to get worse before they got better, and her words were surprisingly comforting to him. He would take what he could get when it came to that woman, and if that meant allowing her to live outside of the safety of Haven’s fortifications it was a compromise he was willing to make. He would just have to increase patrols and makes sure the hunting lodge was regularly checked on. 

Delani might have been away from Haven’s walls, but she was not beyond the reach of the safety Cullen could offer her. She was an agent of the Inquisition now, and he would make sure that she remained under its protective shadow no matter where she decided to rest her head.

When Cullen returned to the training grounds, he met Cassandra’s curious gaze and nodded that he had handled the situation. Striding up to where she was standing, he reclaimed his post supervising the training soldiers and didn’t offer her any information on what had transpired. He could feel her gaze burning into the side of his head as she waited for him to tell her what had happened.

After a few seconds had passed without an explanation, she investigated, “Well, Commander, is the Herald—“

“I dealt with it,” he cut her off, his hands on the pommel of his sword as he watched the recruits. 

Her eyes narrowed and she finished her question with a growl, “Is the Herald returning to her quarters?”

“No,” he answered before giving Cassandra a sidelong glance. Noting the surprise quirking her eyebrows, he supplied, “She’ll be remaining in the hunting lodge.”

“But…” she shook her head, not understanding why he had allowed her to remain secluded from the rest of them.

Turning to face Cassandra, Cullen explained, “We’ve asked a lot of her, Seeker. It seems only fair that we give her just this one thing in return, don’t you think?”

She gave him a hard look before expelling a heavy breath and shaking her head. “If you feel that it is best,” she regretfully conceded to his observation. “I will trust your judgment on the matter, Commander.”

Cullen nodded and returned his attention to his men. When Cassandra left his side to go swing her sword at a training dummy, he let out a breath he hadn’t realized that he was holding. He wasn’t entirely convinced that leaving Delani in the hunting lodge was the best decision, but he did believe that in order for them to make any progress with her, they would have to start meeting her half way. 

Today it was the hunting lodge and tomorrow they would test even more footing of solidarity. Soon they would find how to properly work with each other, and Cullen tried to ignore the flame of pride that burned with knowledge that he had helped the process along. 


End file.
